Dr James Edwards

Lecturer in Biomedical Science - Microbiology (Education)

Qualifications

I joined Peninsula Medical School as a Lecturer in Biomedical Science in 2013 after moving from the University of York where I was a Teaching Fellow. I have worked on a variety of research projects, both in industry and academia, with the most recent studying respiratory processes and growth physiology in pathogenic bacteria. At York I taught on a number of biochemistry modules and supervised undergraduate project students. At Plymouth, my position allows me to focus on teaching our undergraduate medicine and postgraduate physician associate students about various topics in microbiology and treatment of infectious disease. Occasionally I work with other groups of students too. 

I teach with a blend of approaches which you can get a sense from via my Youtube page. 

BSc (Hons) Microbiology, University of Surrey, 2002

Ph.D, Department of Biology, University of York, 2006

PGCAP, University of Plymouth, 2014

Twitter: @pupsmd_micro

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/je129/featured

Professional membership

Microbiology Society

British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy

Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Roles on external bodies

• I currently sit on the Microbiology Society Sustainability committee
• I co-organised the Microbiology Society 'Teaching Microbiology in Higher Education' symposium at the 2019 and 2021 annual conference
• I am a member of the 'Keep antimicrobials working' group as part of BSAC, developing antibiotic and antimicrobial stewardship competencies and resources for medical students

Teaching interests

I have teaching interests in medical microbiology, antibiotics, antibiotic resistance and molecular biology. I deliver lectures, year 1 & 2 life science resource centre sessions (small group teaching) and year 3 and 4 teaching in support of these areas. I help organise the Microbiology Educators network as part of the Microbiology society. 

Research interests

All of my research and scholarship is conducted as part of the Division of Educational Scholarship here within the Faculty:

Microbiology and AMR teaching in HE

I am particularly interested in how microbiology is taught nationally, both in science and healthcare curricula. I am interested in identifying difficult to understand topics within microbiology and tailoring teaching to address these areas. I am currently involved in a UK wide study looking to develop antibiotic and antimicrobial competency guidelines for medical students.

Student led mentoring

I am interested in student mentoring, particularly with supporting students to become peer-peer or near-peer mentors.

Currently, we have a mentoring scheme looking at pairing our 5th year and 1st year students. I have been awarded a grant to evaluate this scheme and am co-supervising an MClinEd student who is leading an evaluation of this. 

We are currently developing our alumni network so that 5th year students can be mentored by Peninsula graduates. Medicine alumni are welcome to contact me if you would like to mentor one of our students! 

Study skills support and time usage

I am interested in helping students adapt to university learning and life. As part of this, I have an ongoing project looking to track student time usage in term time to help understand learning behaviours better and the impact of Covid-19 on study habits. This is part of ongoing work to understand how much time medical students have to learn and understand medicine and what can we do to better optimize student support. This project is being led by an MClinEd student. 

Previous interests and internal roles

• Although not currently active in the laboratory, I still retain an interest in the growth physiology of bacterial pathogens, how they respire and how they regulate the transcription of respiratory genes. I have used in vitro and in vivo approaches in the past to investigate this, including gene cloning, protein over-expression and purification, DNA binding assays, gene knock-outs and reporter gene fusions.
• I am also interested in how microorganisms respond to environmental pollutants and in detoxification of the environment.
• Internally I have acted as an adviser to PhD candidates.